Tiny Canvases: Nail Art by Joy Ella

I see fingernails as tiny canvases. I'm a tomboy, former nail-biter, and ADHD yet I am obsessed with nail art design. These are my manicures "in-depth". Follow me at http://nailartbyjoyella.tumblr.com for the short versions.

9.2.12

Houndstooth is my most favorite pattern that exists. I dunno why but I am obsessed. The reason I got into nail stamping was because I knew it would be possible to have houndstooth nails (for realz). I've done this pattern tons but here we are again. This is actually from about a month ago but I'm catching up in blogland now that I'm settling into working full-time again.

23.1.12

I got a few new polishes over the weekend (and noticed a bunch of new L'Oreal nail polishes that I need as I don't have dupes in my collection of many of the new colors). One of them was one of the new Revlon shades, "Fasionista". It's a dark navy creme with almost a blue-green tint to it, but only slightly. I decided to review and swatch it today.

Outdoors, natural light.

Outdoors, natural light.

The formula is very opaque, almost only need one coat although I used 2 for these pictures. Not runny or streaky but like most blues, if you get it on your skin it will be a pain (nearly impossible) to get off without leaving stains. I had done clean-up and showered and washed my hands numerous times by the time I took these photos and you can still see some blue tinting around my cuticles.

I like the color. I'm not a big fan of blues (especially because of the staining issues) but this neutral navy color is pretty enough to wear again some time.

In pictures I am wearing:

1 coat of Nail Magic "Base Coat Therapy"

2 coats of Revlon "Fasionista"

1 coat Seche Vite "Fast Dry Top Coat

What do you think? Anyone know of any colors "Fashionista" could be a dupe of?

20.1.12

My first attempt at utilizing the sponging technique. I LOVE it. I think sponging is one of my new favorite nail art techniques. I love the way it turns out and the amount of control I have. I had started out with a grey polish and was going to do some dotting (inspired by this tutorial) but when it took FOREVER to dot just one nail, I decided to do a cloudy sky look on the rest of my nails but it looked weird with just white and grey so I sponged some blue around the white and then sponged some more white to make it look "fluffier"/more cloud-like and voila! I got so many comments on these nails. I ended up sporting this mani for almost a week (I usually can't go more than a day or two between manicures)!

For the sponging I just used some generic (walgreens' brand I believe) cosmetic sponges that I tore up into bits. I'd describe the process of sponging but there are already so many great tutorials out there, like this one @ Nailin' It.

The numbers in the first photo correspond to the list, which indicates the brand, polish name, line/collection/edition (if applicable), and bottle number. Oh yeah, and FYI, the little red marks above each swatch are how I keep track of the number of coats I used to achieve the resulting color.

Outdoors, natural light

Nail Wheel 113

China Glaze Champagne Bubbles 1002 - Holiday 2011

Orly Ma Cherie 730 - Holiday 2011

Orly Oui 734 - Holiday 2011

Orly Androgynie 731 - Holiday 2011

Sonia Kashuk Chocoholic 25 - Target Exclusive

Sonia Kashuk Fatigued 22 - Target Exclusive

Wet 'n Wild Tickled Pink 402 - Wild Shine

Wet 'n WildSunny Side Up 405 - Wild Shine

Wet 'n WildCaribbean Frost 446 - Wild Shine

Wet 'n WildBlack Creme 424 - Wild Shine

Sinful Unicorn 953

Sinful Tokyo Pearl 112

Sinful Snow Me White 101

Sinful Savage 950

Sinful Scandal 855

Sinful Ruby Rush 369

Sinful Pull Over 955

Sinful Mint Apple 947

Indoors w/flash

Indoors w/flash

Leave a comment if you want to see a full swatched manicure review of any of these polishes featured in this series!

I had no idea what color blocking was before this challenge! I googled it and after reading a couple articles and searching images, I had somewhat of an idea. So here is my interpretation of a color block mani, inspired by this photo of Rihanna (photo from teenvogue.com):

Left hand, natural light.

Right hand, natural light.

To create this look I used lots of tiny slivers of masking tape (any low-adhesive tape would work though), small paint brushes, patience, and the following colors:

Essie - Case Study (base)

Revlon - Plum Seduction (fuschia)

Borghese - Capri Coral (orange)

I might have taken the term color blocking a bit literally! I like how it turned out though and I learned something about current fashion trends in the process! :D

To check out the details of "A Year's Challenge" and see how others participating in the challenge interpreted the Color Block manicure, go here.

18.1.12

The numbers in the first photo correspond to the list, which indicates the brand, polish name, line/collection/edition (if applicable), and bottle number. Oh yeah, and FYI, the little red marks above each swatch are how I keep track of the number of coats I used to achieve the resulting color.

Outdoors, natural light.

Nail Wheel 112

Sinful Easy Going 300

Sinful Courtney Orange 30

Sinful Black on Black 103

Sinful Beautiful Girl314

Sally Hansen (SH) Wild Life 32 - Xtreme Wear

SH White On 02 - Xtreme Wear (old formula)*

SH White On 300 - Xtreme Wear

SH Twisted Pink 240 - Xtreme Wear

SH The Real Teal 39 - Xtreme Wear*

SH Rockstar Pink 140 - Xtreme Wear

SH Purple Potion 13 - Xtreme Wear

SH Mint Sorbet 340 - Xtreme Wear

SH Marine Scene 23 - Xtreme Wear

SH Lime Lights 22 - Xtreme Wear*

SH Black Out 24 - Xtreme Wear

Sinful Let's Talk 929

Sinful Irish Green 198

Sinful Happy Ending 946

Indoors w/Flash.

Indoors w/flash.

Leave a comment if you want to see a full swatched manicure review of any of these polishes featured in this series!

Just an FYI

All photos featured on this site are of my own original work unless otherwise noted. You are welcome to share/save/reblog any of my photos as long as you credit them to me with a link back to either nailartbyjoyella.tumblr.com or tinycanvases.blogspot.com. Thank you!